PS2 modifications legal use, claims Australian court
The Sydney Morning Herald reports this afternoon that, at the end of a four-year-long battle with Sony, electronics dealer Eddy Stevens has won a ruling from the High Court of Australia, stating that the sale of modification chips for Sony PlayStation 2 is fair and legal :
Mod chips allow gamers to ignore manufacturers’ regional coding systems and run cheaper games - made for markets outside Australia - on their consoles.
The free trade agreement which Australia signed with the US last year and which came into effect this year stipulates that copyright laws here have to be aligned with those in the US by 2007.
According to the FTA, consumers cannot circumvent "effective technological measures" that control access to a tech device.
All six judges of the High Court held that widely used mod-chips are legal and that playing a game on a consumer’s machine does not constitute an illegal copy.
(Sydney Morning Herald)
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